}t37 



ltd? 



AN 



O R A 1^ I O N , 



Delivered lieforc the Deiiioerats of IVeisliiiigtoii Voanty, 



Moutpelicr, on tLe 4th ofjulir, 1839: 



BY EDWARD D. BARBER. 



[Published by request of Committee of Arrangements.] 



PRINTED AT THE PATRIOT OFFICE. 
1S39. 



ORATION 



The public commenunoration of great and momentous events in the liis>tory of 
nations and o{ men, has been practised from the remotest antiquity. It is the 
most obvious and effectual means of preserving, among succeeding generations, 
the remembrance of such events and of the good which was obtained, or the 
evil which was averted by them. Nothing can so effectually keep alive and 
embody the spirit of the tin^.es in which the event transpired, as the frequent cel- 
ebration of its anniversary, and the recounting of the scenes with which it was 
attended. When a nation whose history has been marked by some signal deliv- 
erance from danger or destruction, either wholly neglects to commemmorate that 
deliverance by public rejoicings and thanksgivings, or suffers it to be signalized 
with unmeaning and inappropriate displays, it needs no prophet to divine that 
the spirit of freedom hath departed from the hearts of its citizens. But when 
tlie festival of a nation's birth or rescue from captivity, or oppression, is celebra- 
ted with generous enthusiasm — with appropriate demonstrations of gratitude and 
joy, and with the spirit of those who wrought out the deliverance, we need not 
fear for the perpetuation of its liberties or the patriotism of its people. It is a live- 
ly recollection of the blessings which such deliverance brought with it, and a 
filial remembrance of the virtues and daring of those who achieved it, that kindle 
mto a flame in the public festivity, and mark the existence and power of the 
father's spirit in the bosom of the .son. If, then, the event which a nation is 
called upon to celebrate with public rejoicings and honors, is one which should 
be hallowed in the memories and reverenced in the hearts of its citizens, it is 
but a dictate of duty, as well as an impulse of patriotism, to signalize its return 
with the homage of the intellect and the soul, and make it the jubilee of reason 
and truth. To this end, on the present occasion, we should make all our facul- 
ties of thought and emotion subservient to the contemplation of the great events 
and principles connected with our revolutionary history. Every demonstration 
of respect and every manifestation of joy— the pageantry and show— the thunder 
of the artillery— the thrilling of the music— the voice of adoration and prayer — 
the power of reason and the appeal of passion— the blandishments of beauty 
and the thousand sympathies and influences which fill our bosoms and crowd 
upon our minds, should all be made instrumental in exciting in our bosoms a deeper 
reverence for the illustrious dead, a holier love for the liberties they purchased 
for us, and a more unalterable determination to transmit them to posterity un- 
tarnished and undiminished. 

The event which we this day celebrate is one which stands upon the page ot 
history, for its grandeur and its glory without a parallel. Its grandeur is not 
that of battle and blood and its glory is not the glory of victory. But Us gran- 
deur consists in its being identified with the interests and happiness of the hu- 
man race; and its glory consists in its being the triumph of right over power. 
The celebration of the anniversary of the 4th of July 1776 is one in which not 
Americans or American institutions alone, have an interest, but one in which 
civilization, humanity and the world, should be sharer. This day, sixty three 
years ago, were promulgated those principles wl-^ch constituted a new era in the 
history of human libcrfv, and which are destined to work out the emancipation 



4 

and regeneration of mankind. To day we commemmorate the highest displays 
of undaunted courage, heroic virtue and unconquerable devotion to human good, 
which the annals of our race affords. And it is only when we sit down to a 
faithful contemplation of the characters of our revolutionary fathers — theii many 
and signal virtues as statesmen, as patriots and warriors — tlieir noble conceptions 
of right and duty — their disinterested and unhesitating dedication of their hopes 
and their fortunes upon the altar of their country and its principles — their uu- 
tiinching endurance of hardship and suffering, of wrong and reproach, as the un- 
dying testimonials of their attachment to human right — and their unblencliing 
passage through the fiery ordeal of persecution and war, to a triumph most glo- 
rious and beneficent in its effects upon themselves, their posterity and their kind, 
that we have a full and vivid conception of the benefits we have derived from 
their efforts and their sacrifices. And ©n the opening of tliis occasion, how ap- 
propriate is it, while some — a scattered remnant of that patriot band who 
wrought out our independence with fire and blood, — yet linger among us, that 
that we should recur to the times and the scenes through which they had to pass, 
that they might meet us, their children, here in peace, and that we together might 
lift our heads, our hands and our hearts in homage to freedom and to the God 
who helped them to achieve it. Let us, for a few moments, hand in hand with 
these venerable relics of a glorious race and a glorious age, revisit, in imagina- 
tion, the days and the fields of their trials and their triumphs. Walk we first to 
the field of Lexington, there to behold tho opening of that fierce drama of blood, 
the acting of which shook the island empress of the sea with terror and scatter- 
ed the brightest jewels from her crown, to witness the first offering of human 
sacrifice upon the altar of tyranny and to hear the deep oath muttered to the 
winds by the free sons of the pilgrims that they would "die or live freemen" — 
and now we turn to the smnmit of Bunker's blazing mount and behold there, 
what Britain learned too late, 

"The might that slumbers in u peasaiil's arm" — 
and while our hearts KJiout with the gallant Putnam in the midst of the din 
and the carnage of the battle, let us not fail to drop one holy tea* of reverence 
and love over the lifeless corse ot the generous but ill-fated Warren — and now 
at our own Bennington, we strike with Stark "for freedom or a grave" and, 
"in the name of the Great Jehovah and Continental Congress," demand with 
Allen the surrender of Ticondcroga — and now behold along the thundering 
heights of Bemis, the eagle winging his victorious llight above the sinking ban- 
ner of Burguoyne — and now we look ujjon the fierce fields of Trenton and 
Princeton, where the father of his country is winning back to his standand, af- 
ter a long absence, the bird of victory, whose notes of triumph send life and an- 
imation through millions of desponding hearts — and now we tread upon INlon- 
mouth's gory plain where 

"freedom's banner torn but flj ing 

Streams like a tliaiidcr cloud aguiust ilie wind" — 

and now we Ijnger among the sad and joyless scenes of Valley Forge, and behold 
the snowy earth red from the unshod feet of the defenders of untitled liberty, 
steadfast amid starvation and death — and now we are treading the ground where 
"Camden's martyrs fell" and wandering amid the scenes 

"Whence rang of old the rifle shot 

And hurrjiug shout of Marion's men," 
and drinking that air, 

"Which o'd DeKnlb and Funipter drank." 
At length we ascend the heights of Yorktown where clo.sed the dreadful strug- 
gle, and where, in the presence of Washington and LaFayette, the British lion 
crouched cowering before the stooping Eagle of America, and the infant I.nde- 
VENDENCE was installed in the hearts of three millions of freemen— the more 
than regal throne from which had been driven back to their refuge among the 
dynasties of the old world legitimacy and kingly sway. Froin this scene of 
triumph and glory, let u.s pass to the shades of Mount Vernon, and behold thete 



the great and good father of his country, seeking in letireincnt uiid |;cacc, that 
rich inheritance of fame which the sceptre and the crown can never bestow. 

"There dwells llie Man, ihe flower of human kind, 

Whose visage mild bespeaks his nobler mind; 

There dwells the Soldier, who his sword ne'er drew, 

But in a righteous cause, to Freedom true; 

There dwells the Hero, who ne'er fought for fttnio, 

Vet gitined more glory than a Ca;sar's name: — 

And oh! Columbia by thy son's caressed 

There dwells the Futher of the realms he blessed, 

Who no wish feels to nuike hia tiiighty praise, 

Like other chiefs, ihe means himself to raise, 

Kut there retiring breathes in pure renown 

And feels a grandeur that disdains a crown." 

How tlniiiing and instructive has been this our short pilgrimage of memory, 
over the hallowed spots and amid the sacred reminiscences of the revolution. 
Fancy still holds us in her charmed embrace. We live in an other age — we 
breathe a purer and a liealthier atmosphere — the spell of other times is upon us 
— the fields and tiowers are more redolent of truth and liberty — and we are 
drinking at fountains which are welling up forever from the great deeps of 
human right and huyian improvement. Under such circumstances, the inspira- 
tion that moved the souls of' the mighty dead — that made eloquent the tongue of 
Henry — that touched as with fire the pen of the immortal Jeflerson — that nerved 
the arm that smote for freedom, and that stirred, as with one mighty impulse, 
the heart of a whole nation, sliould be upon us, and should fill us with the spirit 
that reigned supremo in the bosom^of our forefathers. 

And for what, let me inquire, were all the costly sacrifices of treasure, blood 
and life, of which 1 have been speaking, made? What was the revolution which 
our fathers accomplished .•" Was it got up and carried forward by aspiring dem- 
agogues for their own personal aggrandizement? Was the war waged to throvv 
off one fonn of government, in order to estaijlish another on less beneficent pri.i- 
ciples? Were the doctrines asserted by our revolutionary sires, mere seditious 
declamations addressed to the selfishness, cupidity and vanity of the nmltitude 
and calculated to inflame the passions, without carrying with them in their prac- 
tical operation, any salutary reform — any new constitution of human gov- 
ernment — any sound exposition of human rights? If so, why eulo- 
gize them or their promulgators? But if, on the contrary, the struggle 
of -the revolution was a struggle for great and enduring principles of 
right — if the men who led it on and carried it through, amid every peril, amid 
disaster and defeat and in the face of power and the lust of dominion, were ac- 
tuated by noble and philanthropic impulses — if the doctrines which they publish- 
ed, as those by which they would stand or would fall, contain the true elements 
of human liberty and human progress, then both the men and their doctrines de- 
mand our homage and both should be cherished in the hearts of all, who strive 
tor the welfare and the elevation of their race. 

The founders of the republic, in the immortal instrument which you have 
just heard read, made a declaration of the principles by which they would be 
guided, in their struggle for independence from the mother country. They de- 
clared their intention not only to be, to free themselves from the tyranny under 
which they were suflering and to set up a government of their own, but to es- 
tablish that government upon their own principles — to lay its foundation, not on 
the perishable and unstable basis of human poucr, but on the deep, immutable 
and eternal basis of human rights. Their declaration was general in its terms 
and general in its object — not for the few millions of people who inhabited the 
soil of America alone, but for the world — for man every where — for human na- 
ture in all its diversity of rank, color, condition and clime. The heaven-de- 
rived, indestructible rights of man, were placed upon the throne in the place of 
princes and regal dominion. By the principles of that declaration, legitimacy 
was despoiled of its splendor, and humanity clothed in its true dignity — rank was 
driven from its usurped and abused authority, and merit exalted in its stead— 
privilege received its sentence of baniahment, and manhood ^va3 recaleld fron:i 



o 

its exile — PuwtK, in «hoit, was casl down, and Right set up. It was a bold 
attack, in the name of man, upon evciy prince, potentate and dynasty of the 
earth. It vva.s the exhuming of human nature from beneath the cru.shing weight 
of thrones and aristocracies — it was calling forth the buried Lazarus of Human 
Rights from the iron-girt sepulchre of civil and ecclesiastical tyranny. Its lan- 
guage was the language of the human heart — its voice had a tone of'startling 
power among the nations of the earth — it rang a peal of joy to the oppressed of 
every clime — and it spoke, like the muttering of seven thunders, in the ears 
of nobles and despots: 

"A voice on every wave 
A sound o'er every sea; 

The war note of the brave — 
The anthem of the free! 

Fiotn steep to steep it rings 

Through Europe's many c'iines — 

A kncll to despot kings — 
A sentence on their cri-iies: 
From every giant hillj companion of (he cloud, 
The startled echo h.-aps lo give it back aloui^: 

Where'er a wind is rushing — 

Where'er ii stream is gushing — 
The swelling sounds are lieard 

Of man to freeruan calling — 

Of broken fetters falling — 
And like the enrol of an uncaged bird, 
The bursting shout of Freedom's battle word." 
The strife of the revolution was not, on the part of our fathers, n strife 
about words, or money, or rule; but it was'a strife about the manner in which 
money sliould be taken from the people, and about the principles upon which 
men should be governed. Tiic contest between Great Britain and this coun- 
ty, was a coiitest for naked poiccr on the one side and naked right on the other. 
Lord North claimed that the imperial parliament had the constitutional power to 
lax the colonies, without their consent (sr without tht'ir representation in par- 
liament; and he stopped not to enquire whence that power waa derived or how 
It came into the British Constitution — v.iuther by usuipation or not — but having 
found it there, [ho fad was sullicicnt for him, and on that fact he planted himself 
in his attempt to subdue to British rule, the people of America. Sarnuel Ad- 
ams, on the other hand, den)anded, in the name of the American people, by 
what rigid that power was claimed. The simple fact that it had been exercised 
by parliament and had got a lodgment in the British constitution, was not, in 
the minds of our ancestors, a sullicicnt reason for its continuance. ^Vit'i/ went 
behind Hrilish precedents for the true source of governmental authority. Power., 
without right, was to them but another Hame for tyranny, and right in their esti- 
mation, was derived not from rulers, but from man. I'liu-s were ahstract power 
and abstract right arrayed against each other as the great antagonist principles 
for \rhich the conllict was waged. On the side of the former, were arranged the 
sceptre and the diadem — the wealth and iniluence of iiereditury titles and honors 
— the sympathies and encouragements of all the royal dynasties of the world, 
and the might of a heartless, hireling and disciplined soldiery. On the other 
stood untitled, undecorated and unpanoplied human nature, surrounded with a 
^^"*^' .?^. l'"''''"'s who had pledged "their lives, their fortunes and their sacred 
honor in its cause, and sustained by an army of those who came fresh from 
their firesides and their homes to do the battle of freedom, self-relying, unterrificd, 
imconqnerahle. 

Such was the contest ef the revolution — such the actors in its scenes of doubt 
and peril and victory — such the deliverance it wrought out for us, and such the 
spirit and principles which were bequeathed to us by our fathers and which we 
arc under solemn obligation to cherish and transmit to our children. 

Ihc most interesting as well as most appropriate imiuiries for such an occasion 
as this, then, arc— What is human liberty? From whence is it derived.' How 
can It bo maintained.' Is our own government founded upon it and are we sus- 
taining nnd perpetuating its true principles: 



7 

lu the conception of some men, freedom is a mere accitlent to a man's birtli, 
or complexion, or innate superiority, and is to be looked upon, rather as a mat- 
ter of good fortune, than a necessary element of man's nature. They do not 
see in it a divine bestowment, by the great Author of all existencies, upon the 
human family, and are hence fain to treat the idea of its being an "inalienable 
right" of man, as the oflsprins of a false philosophy or the flourish of a too 
vivid rhetoric. And with the ridicule and contempt which have of late years been 
thrown upon it, there has been a manifest tendency in public sentiment, to hold 
in little respect, the whole doctrine of rights so fiercely contended for by our 
fathers, and so perseveringly sneered at by the royalists of their days. But, 
mark me, if we would preset ve the form and the spirit of liberty in the world, 
we must ever keep ourselves firmly planted on the rights of human nature — with- 
out constantly keeping our eye upon them, as the cynosure in the political firma- 
ment, we launch forth into an illimitable sea of speculation and doubt, without 
any guide to direct us to the desired haven, and are sure to be either swallowed 
up in the Maelstroora of Anarchy or wrecked on the rocks of Despotism. 

Liberty is founded in the constitution of man and is a necessary attribute of 
his nature. His creator has endowed him with capacities for enjoyment, and 
furnished him with powers that impel him to action — that enable him to acquire 
knowledge and shape the means to the end — that elevate his aspirations and de- 
.sires above the grovellings of the brute to a higher and better destiny — that bind 
him, with indissoluble ties, to the beings around him, and that guide him to 
the choice of the right and good. Happiness, in the exercise and the enjoy- 
ment of these powers, is his great persuit. Burning with such high energies, 
his great parent has placed him in a heritage abounding with animation and 
beauty and power — with delights for his sense, mysteries for his mind, kindred 
beings for his affections, and good St evil for his power of choice. Thus constitu- 
ted a reasonable, intelligent and n^oral being, he cannot but be the subject of du- 
ty — duty to himself, to his fellow creatures and to his Creator. Forever con- 
scious of his claims upon others, he possesses an instinctive conviction of their 
claims upon him. A law of reciprocal obligation and duty is written, by the fin- 
ger of the Almighty, upon his heart. But he cannot obey this law, or comply 
with the beneficent impulses of his nature, or conform to the government of rea- 
son, or be guided by the dictates of natural justice and duty, unless he possesses 
rights, — the right to move, to speak, to control his own actions and to seek his 
own good and the good of others, according to his own free choice. How can 
he be the subject of reasoii, if not left to exercise his own reason, without re- 
straint? How can he be the subject of duty, if he cannot act from his own vo- 
litions and be governed by his own motives? If, by the constitution of his na- 
ture or the requirements of divine authority, he is bound to perform any act, 
forego any gratification or resist any evil, he must possess theright to choose and 
the right to act from that choice, independant of the commands of another. If 
he is under obligation to do any thing, he must necessarily have the right to do 
it. If man is, therefore, the creature of reason, of duty, and of right, he must 
he free, or the principles of his nature are violated & the purposes of his creation 
thwarted by a daring infringement of the divine will. His freedom being the 
necessary result of his being a reasonable and accountable creature, so long as 
he remains reasonable and accountable, bis freedom must be an "inalienable 
right:" for he cannot, without violating the constitution of his nature and the 
will of his maker thereby expressed, obsolve himself from the faithful exercise of 
his moral & intellectual powers in obedience to those laws enstamped upon his soul. 

Such being the rights of man as an individual — rights which are insoperable 
from his nature, given him by God and not derived, in any way, from compact 
with his fellows, it follows irresistibly, that whatever rights are natural to man, 
are possessed on a perfect equality by every individual of the species. While, 
therefore, men differ in their physical powers, in their moral qualities, and their 
intellectual gifts, so far as rights are concerned, they come from the hand of 
their maker perfectly equal — equally free, equally entitled to the enjoyment of 
the bounties of nature, equally entitled to seek after and participate in the de- 
lights of sense, the solaces of affection and the pleasures of intellect. Standing 



ill the simplicity of nature before his Creator, man is every where the ollspi iug 
of the same parent, the free denizen of the same world, the equal inheritor of 
the riches and benefactions of his great author — the same free, intelligent, mor- 
al and immortal being. God has not, by any ordinance of liis will, made one 
n prince and another a peasant — made one to roll in affluence and another to 
pine in want — one to command and another to obey. These are the results of 
man's devices — of man's disregard of the riglits of his fellow man — of man's 
war upon the interests of his brother, at the expense of that liberty and equality 
which Heaven hath bestowed alike upon alJ. 

If such is the natural condition of man, for what purpose sliould be instituted 
government? Should it be tomakolhe million, the serfs and slaves of the one"' 
To rob the multitude of their heaven-descended rights and to manufacture a 
monarch or a nobility out of the spoils.-' To invest one or a few with the right 
to command and give rules of conduct to the rest, without their consent? To 
have one class born to luxury, idleness and magnificence, and another to toil, pri- 
vation and penury? No. The simple and proper object of human government 
is, to protect the natural and inalienable rights of man from invasion and violence, 
and aid him, as far as practicable, in the developement of his powers and the 
virtuous improvement of his nature. Men enter into the social compact, not 
to yield up rights, but to provide means tor their more perfect security. In the 
natural state, though all men are equally free, equally entitled to every gratifi- 
cation of which their natures arc capable and which the world of matter, mind 
and emotion can atTordthem, they do not all, in obedience to the dictates cf right 
and duty, respect the rights of their fellows, but seek for their own advantage 
and elevation, at the expense of the good and enjoyment of others. The strong 
oppress the weak — the guileful circumvent and defraud the upright and pure min- 
ded — the rapacious and powerful prey upon all whom they can overreach and 
despoil. Now the great and primary object of government is to furnish protec- 
tion to the rights and interests of humanity when coupled with weakness, and to 
repress and restrain those dangerous and hurtful propensities of our nature, 
which unsettle the order and harmony of the moral world — which have filled 
every land with violence and plunged every nation in blood. If. therefore, when 
men enter the social state, they yield up their natural right to protect them- 
selves from wrong by their own strong arm, they do it only that the more pow- 
erful arm of public lorce and public law may be substituted in the place of 
their own comparative weakness. If they consent that their controversies should 
betaken out of their own hands and settled by public tribunals, it is, that the 
right of all may be the more cflectually guarded and equal justice more surely 
dispensed. If they submit to have a portion of their gains taken Cov the support 
of public authority, they are only, by that means, providing the more effectual 
safety for all their interests of person and property. Government is, in short, 
only a mode, adopted by common consent, of vindicating interests w-hich are 
common to all, from infringement and distruction. It is but an embodying of 
the public strength and public wisdom, for the public good. Its high prerog- 
atives are beneficence and justice. It never suffers, without losing sight of its 
highest ends, tight to be sacrificed to expediency — honesty to rapacity — recti- 
tude to favor — or man to property. 

What then, sliould be the fundamental principles, of a legitimate constitution 
o( human government ? The leading one, must necessarily, be an acknowledge- 
ment of the people, as the only source of political power, and a perfect ultimate 
responsibilty to their will. One step of departure, from these principles, places 
you in the high road to despotic power. To this must be added an acknowledge- 
ment of the unqualified political equality of the people. The idea of hereditary 
rank, — hereditary privilege,— titular distinction, or any distinction whatever, ex- 
cept that founded on superior merit, can find no place in any just conception of 
constitutional freedom. If once admitted, as being founded in nature, there 
is no stopping place in the career of-exclusive privilege, short of the divine right 
of kings ; whereas, in the eye of the true philosopher of liberty, all rights are di- 
vine, but equally so in the rags of tiie mendicant and the trappings of the noble, — 
in the peraon of the laborer, and the person of majesty. In like manner, every 



true conslitution of government must rest itself on the capacity of the people for 
self government. If the whole are not most capable of governing, where shall 
the eclectic process stop ? It can stop no where short of an aristocracy or a 
throne. The people best know their own wants, and can best tell how they may 
be relieved. Being themselves the subjects of government, they will not be like- 
ly to prey upon their own interests, or submit to exactions that are not for the 
general good. All true government provides moreover, for a division ol its pow- 
ers into proper departments, and a precise definition of the number and extent of 
those powers. It looks also to the improvabilty of our nature, and has faith, not 
only in the sagacity of men to discover what is fortheir own advantage, but in their 
intelligence and their capacity for improvement in knowledge and virtue. It 
therefore, always provides the means for giving full scope, for the display of the 
moral and intellectnal powers of those who are to be under its sway; and instead 
of putting clogs upon advancement and fetters upon intellect, it throws wide open 
the avenues of distinction, and brings education and knowledge to the doors of all. 
To forward the work of human improvement, — to make the people best acquaint- 
ed with their rights, and their responsibilities, — and to prepare them for an intell- 
igent exercise of the high prerogatives, with which they are invested as freemen, 
every constitution of government should provide for perfect freedom of opinion and 
perfect freedom of inquiry and discussion. If men are to be their own governors, 
they must be left free to speak, to write, and to publish their thoughts for the ben- 
efit of all. How can the right be determined without investigation .' How 
can the good be known without inquiry and discussion .'' And how can the 
benefits of discussion be realized among the whole mass, except by open- 
ing and keeping open, the avenues of intellectual communication.'' It is on- 
ly where the general good is treated as subordinate to partial and oppressive in- 
terests, — where truth is not to be sought lest the truth should make free, — where 
right is trampled beneath might, tliat the free speech is feared, or that gags for 
the mouth and padlocks for the press are needed. Where man is respected and 
not his externals of condition and station, — where justice, rectitude and truth are 
to be established, the more freely the immortal mind is left to explore the universe 
of God, the more certainly will those objects be attained, and the more rapid 
will be the improvement and the higher the elevation of the race. Unless error 
is the reigning deity, no nation need fear the worship of truth, and where truth is 
left free to combat error, no one need fear for the ultimate triumph of the former. 
"Truth crushed to earth sliall rise again, 

The eternal years ofGod, are hera, 
But error, wounded, writhes in pain. 
And dies umong her worshipers." 

So, too, the perfect security of freedom of conscience, is an essential element 
in every true constitution of human government. It is only leaving man, in his 
discovery and practice of duty towards his maker, where that maker has left him 
to answer each one for himself The most execrable of all tyrannies, is that 
■which steps between man and his God, and attempts to dictate to him the matter 
of his belief, or the mode of his worship; and which visits him, with pains and 
penalties, because his faith does not square with the canons of a sect, or the or. 
thodoxy of a statute. 

It is only necessary to remark here, in passing, that our our own constitution 
recognises all those great fundamental |)rinciples of civil liberty, of which I have 
been speaking. It derives all political power from the people, and makes all 
rulers their mere servants and agents. It discards all hereditary distinctions and 
privileges and opens the door of distinction to merit alone. All its provisions 
look to the capacity of the people for self government and self improvement It 
throws wide open the avenues of intelligence, inquiry and discussion, and forbids 
any abridgement of the means by which they are carried forward. Its whole 
machinery is adapted to give scope to free speech and thought, and to make all 
its departments of authority ,^eel the play of public sentiment. It provides that 
the popular will should be paramount, and takes care that every means shall be 
furnished for the intelligent and benevolent exercise of that will. It makes, io 
short, oplnicn, instead ot'force, the supremo arbiter. 



10 

'ihiit ixiiit a govcinmcnt feLoald be as eimplo as possible in its details and op- 
eration, must ho u])pnierit Rt n glanco. Its pnranifcuiit objerts aro plain and few, 
and the means whii:li it adopts to secure those objects should bo equally plain'and 
I'evf. Its powers should be well defined, and should never dopend upon mere pre- 
cedent, construction or implication. The less complicated it is, in its provisions 
and administration, the more certain will it be to secure its just ends; & the mure 
intricate it is, whether in theory or practice, the more surely will it depart from its 
le^itimateobjects and become (ho refuge of oppression and wrong" 

J^ut such a government as i have been describinsf, inay be established, and 
may bo perfect in the arrangement of its powers, and tiie adaptation of its means 
to secure the freedom, happiness and improvement of its citizens, and yet not be 
administered so as to eO'ett those objects. If rulers lose sight of righis. and le- 
gislate independent of tiiem, for properly, prosperity, and national greatness, they 
ore sure to render government an engine of wrong to some, and favor to others, 
and thus, thwart its only true end, — the promotion of the well'are of all alike. — 
The GENERAL GOOD, therefore, should be the great aim in the administration of 
government. And by }i;encral good, I do not mean the promotion of richcs,^ 
Bplendor and power in the nation, but the equal protection of every citizen ia 
his rights, — the impartial adininistration ofjuslice, the supremacy of the laws, in 
their power ot punishment and protection, over all — equal means (»f wealth, (sduca- 
tion and advancement to every citizen — the universal dillusion of intelligence and 
the promotion of hoifcsty, industry and virtue among every class, — and the subor- 
dination of all mere pecuniary and temporary interests to the good of man, in all 
his moral and immortal qualities. All legislation, tlien, which is partial in its ob- 
ject or operation, is at direct war with the principles of republican liberty, — a 
palpable violation of the social compact, — an adoption, in practice, of the very 
essence of tho aristocratic principle of society and government. Laws should 
h«ve reference to rights, and rights belong equally to all. 

The administration of our own government, then, upon wrong principles, and 
Trith wrong views as to the true object of government, and the true scope of legist 
lation, is the rock upon which we aro most likely to split. The great end a- 
which we should aim in our ellbrts for tho public good, manifestly is, to imbue 
the public mind with just sentiments as to the true objects of government, and the 
best means of securing those objects. The public sentiment of the nation is ex- 
pressed by the statute book, — if that sentiment is tinctured with false notions, 
and formed upon unsound maxims, the laws will exhibit, in their character and 
operation, an unsound policy. If the simple doctrines of republicanism prevail 
among tho people, the laws will be few, general, impartial and plain. If the ar- 
tificial and speculative dogmas of tho aristocratic principle have been adopted 
to any extent, by tho people, the laws will be correspondmgly numerous, com- 
plex, partial and unintelligible. The former will be the policy of nature; the lat- 
ter, the policy of artificw. It is at this |)oint that the people of this country divide 
into parties, and here it is, that we may appropriately inquire, are we of the present 
day maintaining and carrying out the simple principles of republican freedom as 
wstablished by our fathers, or aro we, to a greater or less extent, adopting the 
principles and policy of tho aristocracies of the old world .•' This inquiry is not 
only most proper for us, as partisans, but also most pertinent to the occasion 
which has called us together. 

If wo go back to the tirno of the revolution, we shall (ind that a very marked 
diffarencQ of opinion, as to the object and powers of government, prevailed among 
the leading men of those days. This dilForence of opinion did not fully and une- 
quivocally manifest itself until after the close of the struggle for independence, 
when it becamft necessary to settle Sc define the powers of (he new government. All 
thfi men of ihono days uijrced in ona thing, — that America should be indepeyidant 
of British lule. But one portion were in favor of independence, in order to es- 
tablish a govornmont on the model of the British Constitution; and the other, 
which Avas, by far, the largest class, and which gave^haracter to the principles 
of the revolution, — were in favor of independence in order to establish a govern- 
ment based upon the right* of man. Kesistance to a bad administratio* of a good 



goveitliiieiit rti\A ths tloclrino of ono class, and reslalntJce lo tyraany fur tUc [ibi- 
nose of securing Iriio liberty, whs the doctririo of tlie otlior. At the UoadoftliQ 
former was Hamilton; Rt the hefid of the latter was Jefferson, These two schools 
distinctly exhihited themselves at the formntion of tho con«(itution. The ono con- 
tended for hereditary features in the constitution, and the removal of power from 
the people, and the other, was for placing the power wlioli!/ with the people, and 
for establishing the njost perfect e(iuaiity ojnong all classes. After the Consti- 
tution was formed and adopted, and the popular had triumphed over the exclus- 
ive principle, as to the form of the government and the arrangement of its pow- 
ers, as soon as the government went into operation these two classes began to ex- 
hibit their peculiar notions in its administration. The one was for extending its 
powers, — addinij new ones by implication, and rendering the government strong 
nnd imposing; while tlie other contended that government should keep closely 
within its defined and cnuuierated powers, taking nothing by implication, and 
that it should b« ijiain and simple i;i its character and operation. 

Hamilton and his scliool drew their notions of government from Great Brit- 
ain, — their 6eon i(ie«Z of government was the British constitution divested of some 
of its most glaring defects, and the form of society which they would substantial- 
ly adopt, was that which prevailed in the mother country. They looked upon 
men as naturally divided into two classes, "the gentlemen and simplemen,"— -tlie 
former fitted to be lawgivers and governors, and the latter, subjects. The peo- 
ple were not, in their estimation, qualitied to be entrusted with sovereignty, but 
should be checked and controlled by a permanent and patrician interest, which 
should hold and exercise authority, not from the people, but from the constilv.iion.* 
Jefferson and his school, on the other hand, threw themselves back of the British 
Constitution, upon the natural rights, and natural equality of men,— looked up- 
on jrovernment as an association of men for their common good, and ielt full faitli 
in the virtue and intilligcnce of the people as their own best rulers. The aim of 
the one class was a mere »io<it/icaZio» of the British constitution; the aim of the 
other, the establishment of a government upon new principles, and such as would 
reject every feature of privilege and legitimacy. That the class, to which Ham- 
ilton belonged, should have been verylaige and influential, is a matter of no sur- 
prise; The whole nation, beibre the oppressions which led lo the revolution, be- 
gan to open their eyes, v/ere imbued with great veneration for British institutions. 
In some, that veneration was so strong as to lead them to take open part with the 
mother country against their brethren; in others, tho galling of the yoke led to a 
stern resistance to the power of Britain, but not to a repudiation of the general 
principles of her constitution; while in others, — and this class embraced the muss 
of the population, — tho outra^^es of the mother country, not only led to a resist- 
ance to its power, but to a rejection of its government also, as founded in u.surpa- 
Tinn, and perpetuated by the oppression of the many, for the benefit oftlie few. — 
The leaders among those, who while they resisted the power of Britain over the 
colonies, still clung to its frame of society and government, were principally men 
of fortune, accusto med to in fluence and respect, — educated with notions of rank, 
* In oi-der lo show llial 1 liave not done injiislico to tho cliiss of poliiiciiins nbove iiitfiitioried, 1 
subjoin tlic following extracis from tiio work of the elder Adams, on ihu Principles of G'overniiient, 
wiitten by him while residing in Enghind, as rtiinister of the United States. Tiiat the views of 
Hamilton :md Adams, on the point in question, were identical, is not, 1 believe, dispuled. Adana 
says in this work, — "I contend lh.it the English constitulion is in theory tho most stupendous fabrm 
of human invention," Vol. 1, page 70. Again, — "The natural aristocracy should receive its nr.i- 
ural and just weight in society, by giving it a regal power to appeal to against tho iradnees ofilic^ 
people," II). 2lPy. Again, — "The distinction of poor and rich are as nccessnry in states of rcnsid- 
erabie extent, as labor and good government,— the poor are destined to labor, snd the licii by the 
advantages of education, independence, and leisure, are qualified for superior stations," lb. pngo 
381. Again, — "The people in all nations are naturally divided into two sorts, the gtvilcmcn nnd 
simphmen, a word which is here, (in England,) used to signil'y co?nmon pco}lc, or lut'cnr.s, hv!:- 
bandmen, mechanics, and merchants in general, — and the gentlemen will ordinarily be ritlicr nnd 
born of more noted families," Vol.3, pago 457. 

A'e^anderH. Everett, Esq., in Iris address nt Weymoutli, M;u«s. on the 4th cf July J8S6, fpfi.'i'<- 
ing of Hamilton, says, — "He is understood however, to have believed that tho joustitution would 
not ultimately, rove to be practicable, and that, after giving it a proper trial, it would bo found ne- 
asssnry ts recur to n strongs ?\gtein." 



and finid of family names and distinctions, — men whose situuliun, circatn.stan- 
ccs and pursuits, identified them, in their habits and sympathies, rather with the 
arlslocracy than Ihe people of England. It is not strange, therefore, that the in- 
fluence of those men, in the early government of the country, should have been 
generally felt, and should have given its legislation an aristocratic, rather than a 
democratic character. Such, indeed, was the fact. Hamilton and his followers 
soon gave the government the impress of their own peculiar notions. It began 
to ape the trappings, pageantry and fotms of royalty, — to treat the people as sub- 
jects rather than sovereigns, — to favor, in the exercise of its powers, the interest 
of classes, instead of the interests of the whole, considered as one class. Under 
their auspices comtnenced, in fact, that stujiendous system of partial and monopo- 
lizing legislation, which is not only the legitimate offspring of aristocracy, but 
lias been persevered in, and carried forward, until within our own immediate rec- 
ollection, its multitude of monied corporations, with a giant one at their head, 
have set themselves in battle array against the government of the people, and 
convulsed the nation to its very centre, in their stru.^!j;le fur ascendancy. The 
llamiltonian party of those times, however, had its antagonists in Jefferson and his 
associates. These parties, thus originating, have existed from that to the pres- 
ent titne, more or less distinctly marked, and we find them now, as then, the par 
ty of power and privilege on one side, and the party of right and equality on the 
other; the Aristocracy and the Democracy. 

The democratic interest having prevail«d, in the formation of the constitution 
nnd sui>sequently in the struggles of 1793 and the following years, and every thing 
like patrician rank and hereditary privilege having been discarded, to those who 
thirsted for such distinctions, the posession of extraordinary wealth seemed to open 
the only door for the attainment of their wishes. Wealth, with its influence and 
appendages, took tlie place of dukedoms, lordships and baronies, in the imagina- 
tions of those wlio longed for the substance, if not the gew-gaws of rank. Forget- 
ting that government was instituted for the security of riglits and the good ot all, 
with special favors to none; and finding tiiat riches might be made to flow in, with 
n more swelling tide, upon those who could obtain from government certain ex- 
clusive privileges, they exerted themselves to turn the legislation of the country 
to their own account. The true object of legislation began to be lost sight of; 
and although every thing was done in the name of the people and for the alleged 
g-ooci of the people yet the interest of the few was the governing object. Law 
ceased, in some measure, to be the voice of right and became the voice of gain ! 
Property, and not men, began to be uppermost in the mind of the law-maker, — 
the interests of mammon began to overshadow the interests of humanity, — labor 
weighed as nothing in the scale against ca|)ital, — national virtue was disregarded 
in the rage for national greatness and power, — and the enduring interests of hu- 
man nature were trodden under the foot of sordid and heartless avarice. Such 
was the introduction into this government ofthat iniquitous system of legislation 
which has filled the land with privileged corporations, and has done much to build 
up among the people, a privileged class more powerful than the people themselves. 
And this is the spirit and substance of aristocracy, if not its form. What, I ask, 
is the substantial difference between incorporatmg a certain class into a privileg- 
ed order by constitutional provision, and granting the same or similar privileges 
to a like number, by legislative enactment ? What 'diflerence in principle is 
there, between attaching to a certain portion of the soil of England, certain e- 
moluments and honors, and attaching to a specified portion of the money of this 
country, represented by stock, advantages which do not attend the residue? — What 
diflerence, in its practical operali«m, can there be between cutting society into two 
classes, making a part nobles and a part peasants, at once; and so employing the 
powers of government, as to constantly aggrandize those, already rich and |)ow- 
erful, at the e.\pense of the rest, until all is splendor and niagtiificence above, 
and all is poverty, wretchedness and want beneath ^ What boots it, that we live 
in a government constructed upon free principles, if the powers ofthat govern- 
ment are 90 wielded, as to enable apart to plunder the rest, or the laws, which 
ar9 ena<;tGd under its authority, are not founded upon the equal rights of all ?■— 



Wliat have we gtiined, iJ'wo have but exchanged an aristocracy of Intid-holderfl 
for an aristocracy of stock-holders? What have we not lost, if wo have exchanged 
fur the ascendancy of a chivalrous St educated nobility, the ascendancy of heartless 
and soulless legal existences, which have no notions of right and wrong, and 
v\hich iiavc no sensibilities to be touched, cither in (heir bosoms or on their backs. 
To satisfy ourselves (hat there has been a gross departure, in the past legisla- 
tion ofthe country, from the true principles of democratic freedom, we need but 
look around us atid recur to facts, withvhich all are familiar. Throughout the 
length and breadth ofthe land we behold, instead of general and impartial laws, 
enacted for the security ofthe people's rights and their improvement in all that 
constitutes true elevation of character, laws erecting an almost countless num- 
ber of monied and other corporations, with privileges which no individual poses- 
ses, and which have been given them at the expense of the community: we be- 
hold, also, that with these monied corporations, has grown up, in the midst of us, 
a distinct and powerful interest, that mixes with eveiy branch of busin(;ss, and 
exerts its influence in every department of society — we have seen this interest 
win its way into the \ery government ofthe country, and boast that the govern- 
rrent could not perform its appropriate functions without its aid — and we ' have 
witnessed it, when its utility was questioned, and its ri^ht to participate in the 
administration of public affairs denied, openly wage war against the constituted au- 
thorities ofthe land, plunge the nation into distress, and threaten it with irretriev- 
able ruin, unless its wishes were acquiesced in — and at this very moment, we 
know that it is engaged in a fierce contest to compel the government to an al- 
liance with its interest. In this we discover that predominance of the partial 
over the general interest, which is most fatal to iVeedom in its tendencies, and is 
the sure forerunner ofdespotic powei. 

A system better calculated to mislead and deceive, than the corporation, pa- 
per-money, credit system so extensfrely adopted in this country, could not have 
been devised by the ingenuity of man. Possessing some advantages, and those 
such as address themselves most forcibly to the observation even ofthe unskilful 
— intricate and subtle in its details and operation,— insidious in its encroachments, 
and specious in its effects, — inflaming (he cupidity of some and ministering to the 
ambilion of others, — possessing, in short, some allurement or some bribe for al- 
most every portion ofthe community, it won its way to public favor, as noiselessly 
as the serpent glides to its prey; and the nation were only aroused to their dang- 
er when they found themselves crushed beneath its weight and writhing within 
its folds. 15y its command ofthe circulating medium of the country, and by 
its consequent power over the commercial world, it possessed the means within it- 
self, of teaching and influencing every pecuniary interest ofthe people; and once 
having mtermingled itself with all the pursuits of life and ramifications of society, 
t became no difficult matter to impress upon the public mind, that its continuance 
md sustentation were necessary to the prosperity and well-being ofthe body pol- 
tic. Secure in the inviolability of corporate privileges, — beinji in no way directly 
lesponsible to the popular will, but possessing an infinite number of appliances to 
operate upon that will and mould it to its own purposes, and being the dispenser 
instead of the recipient of favors, it necessarily acquired a fearful influence, not 
jnly over the people but over their public servants. It became no middling interest 
or third estate in the republic, but began to be the stale itself. And yet it had 
eached this fatal supremacy, by such rapid and stealthy strides, that the people 
eemed not to know that they were under the yoke, — its galling alone aroused 
hem from their lethargy. 

In the minds of some politicians and statesman, this country owes all that it 
losseses of prosperity, improvement and greatness to the introduction and pre- 
.alence ofthis system. They would fain make you believe, that before its adop- 
ion and extension, the land was a waste and the people, barbarians; and that with- 
>ut its continuance, the country would become a desolation, and its inhabitants 
a race of paupers! How little do such men know ofthe true source of a nation's 
prosperity, or the true elements of a nation's improvement and greatness. Indus- 
try, frugality and virtue among the people, are the fountains from which flow true 



14 

nationn! increasa and Btren^Lh. That ihi.-; aysteiTihaa a tenduncj lo advRiicc iho 
nation in many respects, 13 admitted. It in';rca3cs the business, the coinmcice, 
the luxuries and the splendor ofthe nation. It acts upon the body politic, like n 
powerful stimulu.s upon the human .system, taxing ull its powers to tiie utmost and 
urging it forward with blind impetucsity in a career which has no guides and no 
goal. But is this improvement in its proper sense r In the eye of the "true pat- 
riot, improvement does U'^t consist alone in the increase of power, in the exten- 
sion of couimerce and the arts, and in the multiplication of cana's, steam ships 
nnd rail-roads, — all these may exist while in all that constitutes real national rich- 
es and prosperity, the nation may be wantin<i, and may be sinking under them, in- 
to ruin. The mindoftiie nation may be given up to false doctrine.s, — its heart 
polluted with corrupt morals, — its strength turned into v/eakness by enervation and 
hloth, — its conscience seared and blunled by violence and oppression, — i!s sense 
of right eradicated, and its fountains of justice corrupted ; it may, indeed, while, 
exhibiting every outward demonstration of vigor, be in the last stages of dissolu- 
tion. Its wealth, its powdr, and its splendor may be but flowers upon the tomb, tho 
more luxuriant from the putrefaction beneath. A nation's ti ue .strength and pros- 
perity consists in the number olits intelligent minds, imbued with true principles 
of liberty, — its number of honest hearts, lull of geneious patriotism and manly in- 
dependence, — its millions above want, and its few in magnificence, — its laws of 
justice and riglit, administered wirh fearless integrity and impaitiality,— its many 
institutions for instructiijn, and its few for wealth and aggrandizement, — its happy, 
industrious and virtuous popiilation, and its means of making that population 
more happy, more industrious and more virtuous. Wealth may be indicative of 
fraud, extortion and wrong, as well as of iionesty, and fair dealing, and it is on- 
ly wlien it is an index ofsMbriety . industry and intelligence among tiie people, and 
when it is used to give to intellect an impul:^ to morality a sale-guard, to justice 
power, and to right supremacy, that it is a national blessing. When a natioii 
prospers at the expense of honesty, virtue, justice and right, its prosperity is but 
the bloom upon the apples of Sodom, — ashes and bitterness are within. 

The philosophic statesman, whose mind is imbued with just conceptions 
of human rights, and whopc aim is tti fix the ibundations of a nation's 
prosperity upon an enduring basis, docs not suffer himself to be drawn in- 
to the support and adoption of any system, which, though it may offer present 
advantages of the most tempting character, may be fraught with evils the most 
direful in its remote tendenci(>s and ultimate consequences. He who loves lii.>^ 
country and his kind, wHI not permit his vision to be bounded by the interests 
of a year or a cycle of years, but will look beyond, into the extended and extend- 
ing vista of futurity, and will estimate the consequence of present acts, upon re- 
mote poslerit}'. He will not adopt that narrow minded, unstatesman-like policy 
which seeks for the agrandizoment of the existing generation at the expense of 
the misery of generations yet unborn. The Public and the People are not t!ie 
same, and their interests are by no means identical. The public is a creature 
of temporary and changeful interest, but the people are eternal, and their great 
interests are ever tlie same. If we grant, then, that the corporation and paper 
money systems, as now exisiting in this country, arc of present advantage, — that 
they stimulate industry — multiply manufactures, — extend commerce and urge 
forward the country with great rapidity, in the increase of v/ealth and luxury, does 
this prove that these systems are beneficial to the nation? How are all these"^ things 
accomplished? Surely not by any new creation of wealth or any now creation of its 
natural lesourccs. They are accomplished by adopting new and artilicial modes of 
action,— by unsettling the more equal distribution of wealth among the people k 
associating it in large masses, whereby its power for great enterprizes, whether 
good or evil in their character, i.q immeasurably increased, — by introducing the 
spirit and principle of monopoly into the public policy, — by breaking down in- 
dividual enterprise, and competition and, with them, 'the more genei^l diM'usion 
of competence and independence,— and by driving labor from the soil to the fac- 
tory, and thus bringing it more peneclly within the power of capital and conse- 
quently rendering it more perfectly its prey. In tho present state of this coun- 



try, whera land is pienJy nnii cheap, and the po[;uiut'ujn is not crowded, the oils 
which such an order of things is calculated to produce, aro not distinctly eeen 
and leit. Yet these are but the incipient steps in the estabiishmerit of a state of 
uocietv, where every thing like liberty and equality arc trcddrn under (bot. To 
gain a full and vivid conception of the fatal tendency of such a policy, the in- 
quiry should be made, what will be the condition oflhe country a century or two 
centuries hence, if the system is persevered in, and increases with the growth of 
the nation ? It needs no prophetic pencil to paint the picture. The land has 
been rapidly filling up with population,; — wealth has been gradually concentrat- 
ing in thehaiids of the lew, and poverty as gradually extending among the many; 
the soil lias come under tlve control of extensive land holders, and instead of a 
numerous, independent class of moderate farmers, there is one landlord to a 
hundred tenants, — r-s^seciated wealth* has reared its factories and tbrges and 
workshops around every waterfall and in every hnmlet, — the competition between 
capitalists and between laborers has increased, only to bring down the wages of la 
bor, — the multitude live only at the beck of the few, — flie improvement of mind, 
the culture of morals, and the practice of virtue among the mass, are all noglert- 
ed in the struggle for a scanty subsistence, — squalor, rajisand wretchedness hcfld 
frightrul sway in the crowded city and village, — disease there sets up his ghastly 
dominion, — hunger and starvation go prowlitii)- round, with hollow eyes and shriv- 
elled lij>s, and with frenzied crime tor an attendant; premature old age and de- 
cay fasten upon manhood,-— infancy is driven to l-mg :\nd almost unrequited toil, 
with no smile upon its lip, no rose upon its cheek, and no joy within its heart,' — 
and the country, v.hich should have been the home of freemen and the nurse of 
giant men, has, by its own evil system of legislation, turned its freemen into 
dependants and filled its borders with a wretched and degenerated race. How 
tiorrible the contemplation! How truly may it be said: 

"111 fares that land to hastening ills a prey, 
Wliere wealth acciiinulates and men decay." 

Wherever true notions of liberty arid a rtrict adherence to the principles of 
democratic equality prevail in the government and policy of a country, we be- 
hold an entirely different state of things. Instead of that "horizontal cut" in so- 
ciety which divides the ])eople into nabobs and paupers, there is a more general 
distribution of wealth among all portions of community. The laws are general 
in their provisions and impartial in their operation, neither oppressing one, nor 
grantiiig favors to another; independence is in every hi cast — industry and con- 
tentment go hand in hand to tiieir toil and frugality is the companion of gain. 
I'he goverr.ment, with parental care, looks to the protection of rights rather than 
the protection of particular interests. It never suffers the individual era class 
to be sacrificed, though the sacritice may bo asked in the name of the general 
good. It subjects its policy to what is just, instead of to that which is only ex- 
j)edient and advantageous. It makes labor honorable, and does not exalt rich- 
es and show above virtue and iiitelligenec, though their let may be lowly and 
their garb homely. It strives, ni shoit, first fur the improvement of the mind and 
heart of the nation and aims to secure the elevation of the intellectual and im- 

*It has bee.n gravely said by an eminent statesman and writer, that " associated wealth " is no 
more dangerous than"associaled poverty." That the evil, if any, is in "ilie principle of associat- 
ed power and in the purposes of the association." and not in the wealth or poverty oftlio parlies." 
If the question was simply whether the association of rich men or pour aicn, for the accoiiiplish- 
ment of any given object, was the greater evil, the only inquiry would be, which has liie most pow- 
er, bv iheir means ami numbers, to accomplish the end proposed? The association would be equal- 
ly anli-republicnn in both cases. Hut the associating nl" wealth in large masses, which posspsnea an 
iiilii'rent power to gainfave; and control for its possessor, when distiibuted amongindivi:!ijals,and con- 
lering upon it tiy law new powers whereby its influence is incalculably increased, is a 
positive evil in itself, and of arii-repubiican lendercy whether considered within the control of ricjj 
or poor men. But poverty is ihe absence of wealth, — the lack of influence, — the want of power, 
it is not, liUe wealth, by nature the spoiler, but iiis prey. And how cau poverty be associated and 
armed with new p<nvers of control, when its only powers are tliose of suffering? How can you in- 
corpoiato want and rags, and hanger and nakedness ? Who wou'd take the stock ? Who would 
ba President or Ci-.shier of lUu compnRy ? Who woo'd ask for discounts rI its counter : 



mortal, over tlie sensual «iiid (cm[joral. Governed by such la\v3 nnd operated 
upon by such a policv, the advancement of a nation in all that is tionornblo nnd 
good, is more sure tli'ougli it mav not be so rapid. Men are content to live by 
the sweat of their brows— prefer to prosper by honest industry , rather than by 
overreaching and fraud, and to aocuniiilate by fair and wholesome gains, rather 
than to grow suddenly rich out of the spoils of their neighbors. The progress 
of the people in arts, commerce, manufactures and the refinenienis and elegan- 
cies of society, is exactly commensurate with their improvement in education, in 
morals and in all the virtues of social and domestic life. The mutual dependen- 
cies and supports of society are so interwoven and sustained by wholesinie and 
just legislation, that a parl'cannot advance without the rest, and the whole mass 
accordint'lv rise together, capita! and labor, wealth and virtue, improvement and 
intelli<'ence, refinement and morality, all joining hands and moving on in beauti- 
ful and beneficent harmony. 

With this picture, let us compare the scenes which arc presented, under the 
operation of the false system of legislation and the false policy which have been 
adopted in this country. 'J he rulers of the people having discovered that the el- 
ements of national prosperity lie hid in corporation credit and paper money, and 
that the former may be advanced within any assignable limit by the extension of 
the latter, with ti ue neophitic zeal commence the talisnianic operation. The in- 
tluence of the system soon manifests itself in the feverish and excited state of 
the body politic. A new and unnatural stimulus is infused irito various classes 
and various pursuits of life. Industry becomes unsteady in its application and 
I'rratic in its designs. As the system extends and infuses itself more general- 
ly into society, the more general becomes the disturbance in the prevailing har- 
i|ionv. The imaginations of men are tilled with new notions of economy and 
acquirement; old habits begin to be irksome and castle-building takes the place 
of steady pursuit. Wealth is rapidly concentrated in large masses and, with its 
KU[)erior nieans and enlarged enterprizes, begins to cripple ir.dividual eflbrt and 
individual competition. The value of property is suddenly and strangely en- 
hanced — prices rise high and all previous ideas of acquisition become unsettled 
and unsatisfactory. Great projects are formed and carried into execution as if 
by magic. Fortunes are made in a day. The desire to become suddenly rich 
seizes upon all classes who can either directly or indirectly reach the grand dis- 
penser of benefits — labor becomes dishonorable and is the last recipient of boun- 
ty trom the hands of this new benefactor — scheming, cunning and fraud, super- 
sede industry, plain dealing and honesty, and a rage for display and luxury take 
the place of economy and frugality. Success makes some imperious, disregard- 
ful of right and impatient of restraint, while want of success plunges others into 
madness and crime. A spirit of speculation and gambling becomes the ruling 
passion and the pursuits of productive industry are abandoned for a chase after 
ima^rinary fortunes All the solid virtues of life are cast into the shade by the 
vhowy and magnificent — the permanent loundations of society are shaken-^tho 
high interests of man's moral and intelligent nature, are passed heedlessly by i» 
the general delirium: And the expansion goes on, until the land rocks with its own 
connnotion — is wild with its own extravagance — staggers under its own profusion 
— is drunken with its own exaltatiim; k until, at length, this bubble of delusive 
prosperity bursts and the whole superineumbent weight of the evil comes down 
upon the heads of the many — the whole fratne of society is wrecked and all but 
(he fiivorcd few are plunged together into the vortex of ruin and misery. And 
the crowning n)ischief of the catastrophe is, that the honest industry and labor of 
the nation, from whose earnings the gorgeous fabric was built, are the first to 
be crushed beneath its fall. The nation recovers from tlie disaster but to pass 
again through the same process to the same fatal result. And at the close of 
each convulsion, the chasm between the rich and poor is wider and deeper. 
And who can estimate the baleful effects of such a system upon the virtue and 
patriotism ef a people? Who can calculate the injury which a nation sufTers in 
its moral constitution, when tVaud, rapacity and injustice are introduced and fos- 
tered, in its midst, by governmental policy? Who can tell how deep is the stab 



It 

io its patriotism when millions ot its most valuable citizens (Vel that its laws were 
not made for their benefit, but that they are oppressed and wronged by the power 
that should protect them? How well calculated, moreover, is such a state of 
things to engender a deep and ineradicable hatred between classes — to'make the 
rich despise and insult the poor, and the poor to seek vengeance for their wrongs 
upon the rich! 

And can such results have been produced by a strict adherence to the princi- 
ples of government upon which our constitution is founded? Are they the off- 
springs of a democratic policy? Have they grown out of any proper apprecia- 
tion of men's rights and equality? Are they not rather the results of a wide de- 
parture from the true principles of our constitution and the substitution, in their 
stead, of aristocratic interests and distinctions? Do they not evince the ascen- 
dancy of the Hamiltonion over the JefFersonian doctrines? Do they not, in 
short, indicate, but too unerringly, the triumph of the selfish over the social prin- 
ciple? The same principles of legislation and the same course of policy have 
but to be adhered to, to end in the establishment of a patrician interest and an 
aristocratic order, as surely as that the government shall continue to exist. TVe 
may not and our children may not live to witness its complete triumph; but if we 
love our country and our race, we shall not, on that account, less zealously and 
perseveringly strive to arrest the progress of a mischief so fatal to human hopes 
and human happiness, than if we beheld it menacing our own destruction and 
hanging, like a portent of wrath, over the heads of our children. 

True democracy has no fellowship with such a system. It sees in its adoption 
and perpetuation, a hiding place for the despotic principles of other nations and 
other times. It beholds not in the improvement and advancement which follow 
in its train, the improvement and advancement of intellectual and moral man, 
but the simple progress of his external and perishing interests. It witnesses the 
nation rise under its influence, but to be cast down; and feels, that when it is 
tnost prosperous to the eye, the disease festers most rapidly at the heart. 

Let no one suppose from what 1 have said that the principles of democracy 
arc opposed to improvement and advancement, and rapid improvement and ad- 
vancement too. On the contrary. Democracy has no fellowship with tjjat 
spirit which is satisfied with present good when higher benefits are within the 
reach. It fails not to amend through fear of destroying — it has no reverence 
for abuses or imperfections though hoary with age and sanctified with the ap- 
proval of past times — it lays careless hands on antiquated systems and oppress- 
ive institutions wherever they may be found — and has inscribed all over its ban- 
ners, in letters of living light, Reform, Progressive Improvement. But its 
reform does not consist in changing the names or outward garb of things — it 
strikes at the root, upturns, remodels and builds anew. Its improvement is not 
the improvement of a day, a year or a generation — not alone the invention of 
new modes of living — new styles of architecture — new fashions of dress — 
-swifter means of communication or magical methods of manufacturing money 
and wealth; but its improvement is as extensive as the family of human kind — its 
foundations are laid in the complex and imperishable nature of humanity — and 
when it starts in its beneficent career, it takes by the hand, tlie laborer at his 
toil and the child in its rags as well as the banker in his palace and the philoso- 
pher in his study, and goes on, with arts, sciences, and all the adornments of 
civilized life, as mere rejoicing attendants upon the triumphal march of man! 

"Come bright Improvement! on the car of Time, 
And rule the spacious world from climo to clime; 
Thy handmaid arts sliali every wild explore, 
Trace every wave and culture every shore." 

To demand, then, reform of this stupendous system of privilege and favoiitism, 
of which I have. spoken, and to strive to bring the nation, in its principles and 
its legislation, back to the simplicity and purity of earlier times, is but to contend 
for the supremacy and prevalence of the doctrines of the revolution and the true 
principles of constitutional freedom. As democrats, we arc this day standing 
lip in defence of those very elementary principles of liberty and right for which 

B 



18 

Washington fought and Montgomery bled and which Jefleisou enforced' witii a, 
pen of matchless eloquence and power. We arc contending, on the 4th of July 
J 839, with weapons of peace, for the same great, leading propositions in politica.1 
philosophy, for which our fathers, on the 4th of July 1116, were preparing to 
contend with battle and blood. The iron foot of power was then trampling them 
down in order to make them and their posterity after them the burthen-bearers of 
Lords spiritual and temporal; while over us, avarice is now attempting to erect a 
dominion equally despotic and unfeeling, in order that the multitude may become 
the source from which its leeches can draw their substance and their fatness. 
And shall we not resist as did our fathers? Not indeed with the din and clash 
of arms, but with the voice of reason and truth, made mighty through the free- 
man's franchise. Shall we tamely acquiesce in usurpations which will, in the end, 
wring out the life-blood from the hearts of our people.'' Shall wc, in view of the 
free spirit and immortal achievements of our sires, submit to a bondage as sure 
and as lasting as that which they threw ofl", because the yoke is padded with silk 
and the fetters are made of gold.^ 

"No — by each spot of haunted ground, 

Where Freedom weeps her children's fall- 
By Plymouth's rock — and Bunker's mound — 
By Griswold's stained and shattered wall — 
By Warren's ghost and Langdon's shade — 

By all the memories of our dead! 
By their enlarging souls svhich burst 

The bands and fetters round them set: 
By the free pilgrim spirit nuised, 

Within our inmost bosoms yet — 
By all above, around, below, 

Be ours the indignant answer — NO!" 

To hinn who traces with a calm and unprejudiced mind, the history of our revo- 
lution and the causes which led to it — who investigates cautiously the true sources 
of political power — who lays the foundations of human government on the immu- 
table basis of human rights, possessed on a perfect equality by all men — who 
admits the improvement of man, in his nobler attributes and higher interests as an 
intelligent and moral being, to be the great end of all just government and legis- 
lation; and who, in view of these fundamental tenets of republican freedom, looks, 
with an impartial eye, at the spirit and tendency of the system of special, une- 
qual and monopolizing legislation now prevailing in this country, and also at the 
spirit and tendency of democratic principles, it cannct fail to be plain that, De- 
mocracy IS THE TRUE PHILOSOrHY OF LlBERTY. 




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